NeuroFlex

Every design choice in this app is anchored to peer-reviewed evidence. Below: the studies that shaped the rules, with plain-language summaries of what they actually found.

No cognitive training app has been proven to prevent dementia. The evidence is strongest for far transfer being modest — meaning gains on trained tasks don't always generalize to daily life (Simons et al., 2016).

What does have robust evidence: aerobic exercise, sleep, the Mediterranean diet pattern, social engagement, and treating hearing loss (Livingston et al., 2020, Lancet Commission).

NeuroFlex is designed as one part of a broader cognitive-health practice — not a substitute for those bigger levers.

NeuroFlex is part of the Grand Living suite — a constellation of small, evidence-anchored wellness tools built by Noah Grand in Sandpoint, Idaho.

This app is offline-first. Everything you see runs on your device. No accounts, no servers, no tracking. Your scores live in your browser's local storage and stay there.

Five domains. Five original games. One adaptive engine. The whole thing fits in a single file.

Every game in NeuroFlex was designed from scratch around a published cognitive paradigm — never copied from a commercial app. Circuit Builder is loosely inspired by Corsi block-tapping (Corsi, 1972). Echo N-Back implements the dual N-Back working memory paradigm (Jaeggi & Au, 2008-2015). Attention Orchestra adapts the dichotic-listening tradition (Cherry, 1953). Divided Field is modeled on the Useful Field of View paradigm from the ACTIVE trial (Rebok et al., 2014). Quick Switch is a task-switching paradigm (Monsell, 2003). Lightning Match measures symbol-substitution throughput in the Digit Symbol tradition (Salthouse, 1996). Idea Chain implements Guilford's Alternate Uses Task (Guilford, 1967). The implementations are original code.

Sound effects: on

Brain games mostly make you better at the games. The activities with the strongest evidence for real brain health are everyday ones — movement, sleep, learning, connection. Track them here; each is tied to published research.

In a year-long randomized trial, older adults who did regular aerobic walking increased the size of their hippocampus — the brain's memory center — and improved memory, while a stretching-only group declined. Physical inactivity is one of the modifiable dementia risk factors in the 2024 Lancet Commission. Target: about 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity a week.

Hearing loss is the single largest modifiable risk factor for dementia in the 2024 Lancet Commission — straining to hear taxes the brain and cuts people off from the conversation that keeps it engaged. In a 2023 randomized trial (ACHIEVE), treating hearing loss slowed cognitive decline over three years in older adults at higher risk.

Sleep now has its own space. The 2-minute wind-down, the 3·2·1 rule, sleep-environment tips, the nightly log, and your data-driven sleep journal all live in the Sleep app.

In the Synapse Project, older adults who spent sustained time learning a genuinely new, demanding skill — quilting or digital photography — improved their memory, while those doing familiar or passive activities did not (Park 2014). Mentally engaging leisure is linked to lower dementia risk (Verghese 2003, NEJM), and education builds the cognitive reserve the Lancet Commission highlights. The active ingredients are novelty and challenge — pick something that stretches you.

Social isolation and loneliness raise the risk of early death on a scale comparable to smoking, across a meta-analysis of 70 studies and 3.4 million people (Holt-Lunstad 2015). Frequent social contact at age 60 is linked to lower dementia risk (Sommerlad 2019, PLOS Medicine), and social isolation is a modifiable factor in the Lancet Commission. What counts is quality — real conversation, not just being in a crowd.

Writing by hand activates more widespread brain connectivity than typing (Van der Meer 2024), and students who take notes longhand understand the material better than laptop note-takers (Mueller & Oppenheimer 2014). Writing also steadies the mind: expressive writing has measurable emotional and physical health benefits (Baikie & Wilhelm 2005), and gratitude journaling lifts well-being (Emmons & McCullough 2003).

A meta-analysis of trials found mindfulness meditation produces moderate improvements in anxiety, depression, and stress (Goyal 2014, JAMA Internal Medicine), and training mindfulness strengthens the brain's attention and self-regulation networks (Tang, Hölzel & Posner 2015, Nature Reviews Neuroscience). Lowering chronic stress also protects sleep and memory.

In the Verghese study, frequent dancing had one of the strongest links to lower dementia risk of any leisure activity (Verghese 2003, NEJM) — probably because it rolls four brain-healthy things into one: aerobic exercise, learning new steps, rhythm, and social connection. It's movement that makes you think.